


Counting the Days

by MirrorMystic



Series: Secret Keepers [2]
Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: Baby Bis, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Pre-Canon, Ram Kids, Secret Keeper AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21578176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorMystic/pseuds/MirrorMystic
Summary: Snapshots of Celica's time in Ram Village, when her crown was only made of flowers and her promises were easier to keep.
Relationships: Anthiese | Celica/Efi | Faye
Series: Secret Keepers [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1639600
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Counting the Days

**Author's Note:**

> A companion story to "Girls' Night". Special thanks to @moonstruckcoast on Twitter for the cameo of her OC as Gray's older sister. I hope you all enjoy the read!
> 
> Do you have stories to be told, but need help with the telling? Send me an e-mail at nathaneraya@yahoo.com, or find me on Twitter at @mystic_writes!

~*~   
  
Summer in Ram. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The bugs were buzzing. On a grassy knoll on the outskirts of town, Faye was having a moment with her newest and closest friend.    
  
While Faye was sprawled unladylike on the grass, her dress rumpled and twigs in her hair, Celica lay against her, pillowed on her stomach, her hands clasped over her chest. She looked beatific in the brilliant light, her crimson hair artfully draped across Faye’s dress, her eyes closed, dozing in the summer heat. Celica stirred as Faye gently laid a flower crown in her hair, her lips ticking up into a gentle, serene smile. They were a striking duo. Where heaven met the earth.    
  
Faye could have spent forever in that moment, just the two of them, together in paradise.    
  
“Ugh!” Gray groaned beside them. “It’s so hot!”   
  
Faye rolled her eyes. Her other friends were there, too, she supposed.    
  
Gray, Tobin, Kliff, and Alm were all sprawled out on the grass beside her, looking up at the sky. They formed a six-pointed star with their legs, or they would have, if Celica hadn’t insisted Faye was more comfortable than the ground.    
  
“Do you guys want to go inside?” Tobin ventured. “We could go to Gray’s.”   
  
“Why do you always want to hang out at  _ my _ house?”    
  
“You guys want to go to the creek?” Faye offered.    
  
“We just went to the creek yesterday,” Kliff muttered. “Can I go home and read?”   
  
“Come on, Kliff,” Alm smiled. “It’s a beautiful day! We should enjoy the great outdoors.”   
  
“The great outdoors is doing its best to melt me out of my skin,” Kliff complained.    
  
“What about you, Celica?” Alm asked.    
  
Celica looked up at Faye with a warmth that gave Faye a funny feeling in her chest. She smiled, nuzzling Faye’s stomach.    
  
“You guys do what you want. I’m fine right here.”   
  
Faye’s cheeks turned pink. Gray rolled his eyes.    
  
“Girls,” he scoffed.    
  
The minutes ticked by, languid, oozing like honey. At least until Tobin started shouting.    
  
“Oh!” He gasped, thumping a fist against the grass. “Guys, guys! Look!”   
  
The kids scrambled up and crowded around Tobin. To their delight, they discovered a grasshopper, perched perfectly still on Tobin’s chest. They all held their breath.    
  
The grasshopper glanced around, unfazed by the gaggle of enraptured faces. Its antennae twitched in the air. Without any fuss, it hopped away.    
  
“Aww!” the kids groaned.    
  
“What are you kids looking at?”   
  
They looked around. Mycen had come trudging up the hill, his magnificent mustache crooked with bemusement.    
  
“Tobin had a bug on him,” Kliff announced.    
  
“Nah, that’s just his face,” Gray chimed in. Tobin gave him an indignant shove.    
  
“You kids are just lying around and looking at bugs on a day like this, huh?” Mycen chuckled. “I take it you’ve all finished your chores for today?”   
  
“Yes, Mycen,” the kids chorused.    
  
“But you’ve still got nothing to do, is that right?” Mycen clapped his gloved hands together. “I think you all know what that means!”   
  
Alm sighed. “Oh, Mycen--”   
  
“Time for some training!”   
  
There was a collective groaning. Mycen waved the complaints away.    
  
“Now, now, don’t give me that! A little exercise never hurt anybody! Up, up, up, everyone! Let’s go, let’s go!”   
  
~*~   
  
Tobin stuck his tongue out, lining up the shot. He had to aim quickly, since he could only keep an arrow drawn for so long. He loosed the shot just as his arm was starting to wobble, and it went wide-- so wide, it fell short of the target atop the fencepost and decapitated a poor turnip in its way.    
  
“Hey! Those are my Nana’s!” Faye called.    
  
“Sorry,” Tobin muttered, sheepish. He nocked another arrow and drew it back, lining up the shot. If he just had some peace and quiet, he could concentrate on improving his aim. Unfortunately for him…   
  
“Ow!” Alm hissed. “What was that?”   
  
“What was what?” Gray asked.    
  
“You stepped on my foot!”    
  
“So?”   
  
“What do you mean, ‘so’? That’s not a real move! You’re cheating! Mycen, he’s cheating!”   
  
“Now, my boy, you can’t always expect your opponent to play by the rules!” Mycen called. “You need to be ready for anything!”   
  
“Yeah, green bean, you gotta be ready for anything!” Gray crowed.    
  
“Oh, so calling me names is part of your strategy, now?” Alm shot back.    
  
“It sure is! I’m lowering your morals!”   
  
“It’s called ‘lowering my morale’!”   
  
“Oh, yeah? Well lower  _ this _ !”   
  
The air filled with the sharp wooden cracks of training swords clashing together, the whoosh of Kliff’s conjured flames smacking into a target board nailed to a tree, and the sounds of Celica and Faye  _ giggling _ or whatever it was girls did. Tobin pushed all that aside and focused on the target in front of him. He took a deep breath, lined up the shot--   
  
“Nice one!” Celica called.    
  
Tobin blinked. He’d taken the shot. He’d been so in the moment he hadn’t even noticed letting go. But there was his arrow, planted firmly in the target, only a single ring off from a bullseye.    
  
“Yes!” Tobin whooped, punching the air.    
  
“Celica, are you watching? Are you watching?” Faye called, grinning from ear to ear. She lifted her bow and nocked an arrow, her stance perfect, her figure sublime. Her shot whistled across the field and struck her target dead center.    
  
Celica squealed in delight and threw her arms around her. They held each other, beaming.    
  
Tobin scuffed a sandal against the dirt and let out a sigh.    
  
“What’s wrong, Tobin?” Celica wondered, her arms lingering around Faye’s neck.    
  
Tobin glanced at Faye and groaned. “You’re so much  _ better _ than me!”   
  
“Well… archery does run in my family,” Faye admits. “But you’re getting better! That shot just now was pretty good!”   
  
“Don’t patronize me, Faye,” Tobin grumbled.    
  
“What does that even mean?” Faye asked, a hand on her hip.    
  
“...I don’t know. I heard my mom say it once,” Tobin huffed, crossing his arms. “I just wish I knew what I was good at.”   
  
“Tobin, you’re good at lots of things!” Celica urged.    
  
“Yeah, but everyone else is better!” Tobin sulked. “Gray and Alm are better fighters, Faye’s a better shot, and Kliff won’t let me touch his books ever since the  _ last _ time I tried using magic.”   
  
Celica smiled. “Well… why don’t we start there?”   
  
~*~   
  
“This seems kind of… dumb,” Tobin said dryly.    
  
“It’s not ‘dumb’,” Celica chided. “Everybody needs to start with the basics.”   
  
“But this is kid stuff!” Tobin whined.    
  
“I hate to break it to you, Tobe, but you  _ are _ a kid,” Faye drawled.    
  
“Here, I’ll get you started,” Celica said. She plucked a leaf off a nearby tree branch, and pressed her thumb against it. A conjured flame slowly began eating at the leaf from the inside out, trailing a tiny wisp of pale smoke. She handed the smoldering leaf over to Tobin.    
  
“Concentrate on the flame,” Celica said. “Try to keep the flame alive in your hand even after the leaf’s burned away.”   
  
Tobin held the leaf up to the light, concentrating on the little orange glow creeping outwards from the center. He muttered mantras to himself, things like “feel the fire” and “be the leaf”, staring at the leaf in his hand until he swore he would go cross-eyed, until, finally--   
  
There was a whoosh of flame, and a little wisp of fire took shape above Tobin’s palm.    
  
“Whoa…” Faye murmured.    
  
“You did it!” Celica cheered.    
  
“Hey! Hey, I did it! That was easy!” Tobin gasped, breathless, cradling the flame in his hands.    
  
“Hey, you did it,” Kliff mused. “But…maybe take it easy? You remember what happened last time.”   
  
“I already said I was sorry, and I only charred the edges of the pages! You can still read it just fine!”   
  
The flame pulsed, abruptly expanding in Tobin’s hand. He recoiled, startled, as the little wisp transformed into an apple-sized fireball, cupped in both hands. Tobin blew out a breath, staring into the orb of shining orange magic.    
  
“Guys! Guys, come look at this!” he called, grinning.    
  
Gray and Alm came scurrying over. By the time they arrived, the flame had pulsed yet again, growing into a fireball bigger than Tobin’s head.    
  
“Check it out! I’m a natural!” Tobin beamed, raising the fireball over his head.    
  
And maybe it was because the sun was just really strong that day, or maybe it was because Tobin’s excitement bled into his magic. But when Tobin lifted his hands, the fireball shivered, filled with volatile magic. Then it exploded, sending ribbons of burning fire shooting in every direction, one of them aimed squarely for--   
  
“Celica!” Faye cried.    
  
Celica didn’t flinch. She pressed her hands together as if in prayer, and parted the wave of fire like the prow of a ship. She opened her hands, scattering Tobin’s untamed flame into a shining cloud, and then brought her hands together again. The rushing flames spiraled into her grasp. Celica squeezed the flames into a ball, clapped her hands together, and then it was gone.    
  
“What was that? Did  _ you _ do that?” Gray wondered.    
  
“The power’s there, but your technique needs work…” Kliff mused.    
  
The boys were huddled around Tobin, gazing in wonder at the traces of magical light lingering in the air. But Faye only had eyes for one person in particular.    
  
“Are you okay?” Faye murmured, breathless.    
  
Celica took her hand, and gave her a reassuring squeeze. She nodded to Faye, before stepping forward.   
  
“You know,” Celica chimed in, a twinkle in her eyes, “they say people who are really good at magic get that way because they have dragon blood. That’s why so many powerful mages are either royalty or priests.”   
  
“You hear that?” Tobin crowed. “I could be a long-lost prince!”   
  
“Or a priest,” Kliff offered.    
  
“Like they’d ever let Tobe become a priest,” Gray laughed.    
  
“Now what is that supposed to mean?”   
  
They laughed together, the boys trading playful shoves, magicked embers still lingering in the air. Celica and Faye just curled their pinkies together and laughed, over an inside joke-- or a secret shared. Alm watched them as they stood apart, wondering what they were giggling about, and decided that he would only understand if he was a girl.    
  
~*~   
  
“...so then Gray goes, ‘all you’ve done all night is talk about clothes, cooking, and playing your dumb tabor, so if you want to talk about girly stuff, why don’t you just go hang out with the girls?’ So, I did.”   
  
Faye rolled her eyes. “Gray doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Doesn’t he see the bells on the side here? It’s  _ obviously _ a  _ timbrel _ .”   
  
“I know!” Alm clapped a hand against his timbrel and set its bells jangling. “So, uh. Can I come in?”   
  
Faye pondered this for a moment, biting her lip. Eventually, she pulled the door open and ushered Alm inside.    
  
“I hope you realize what a treat this is,” Faye warned. “This was supposed to be a girls’ night. No boys allowed.”   
  
“I’ll try not to get in the way,” Alm smiled.    
  
Well, that was a loaded statement. After all, a year ago, Faye still had a crush on Alm, and those feelings didn’t exactly go away. If anything, they’d gotten more complicated, now that Faye and Celica were… whatever they were.    
  
It turned out that despite her misgivings, Faye was ready to spend more time around Alm again, since the evening started with Alm politely greeting her Nana, in Nana’s words, “like a gentleman, only shorter”, and it was all uphill from there.    
  
They spent a few hours in the kitchen with Nana, helping bake pies for the upcoming townwide harvest festival. After that, and a crack about how “maybe if Kliff knew how to knead dough like a girl he wouldn’t have those noodle arms”, Faye found herself sitting on the carpet in front of the couch, with Celica brushing her hair.    
  
It had become a routine, every night Celica came by to visit, which was more and more often nowadays. Faye had come to treasure those nights, savoring the feeling of her hair in Celica’s hands, soothing the day’s worries away. Faye leaned back, resting her head on Celica’s lap. Celica smiled at her, upside down. Faye couldn’t help but smile back.    
  
“When did you two get so close?” Alm wondered.    
  
Faye had forgotten he was still there. She jolted upright, startled, but Celica drew her arms around her from behind and pulled her back down. Faye reached up and gave Celica’s hands a squeeze.   
  
“It’s a girl thing,” Celica teased. “You wouldn’t understand.”   
  
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Alm smiled. “It’s good to see you two getting along.”   
  
“What does  _ that _ mean?” Faye wondered.    
  
Alm blinked. He fidgeted. “...Well… you know. Things were… weird… for a while. I remember one time you told me you just wanted to ‘smush Celica in her perfect face’.”   
  
Celica snorted. Faye sputtered.    
  
“Th-That was a year ago! I was just a dumb kid!” Faye huffed. “I’m eleven and a half, now. I’m practically grown up already!”   
  
Faye squeaked in surprise as Celica pinched her cheeks. “Aww, grown up? No, you’re just a cute little kid.”   
  
“Let go of my face!” Faye wailed. She grabbed hold of Celica’s cheeks and squeezed. “There! How do you like it? You look like a fish!”   
  
“ _ You’re _ a fish!” Celica laughed, too giddy to think of better comebacks.    
  
While Celica and Faye were locked together in an absurd embrace, Alm was doubled over on the couch, laughing in delight. The girls turned to him in unison, their mutually squished cheeks morphing into sinister smiles. With a shout, they dove for Alm, ready to subject him to some heinous tickle torture.    
  
He jumped over the back of the couch and ran, the girls hot on his heels. The girls split up, trying to catch him in a pincer, but unfortunately, the only pincer he wound up caught in was the jaws of Faye’s bearskin rug around his foot. Alm fell with a yelp, and Faye and Celica dove on top of him, tickling him mercilessly.    
  
In all the commotion, Faye’s Nana drifted into the room. She raised an eyebrow at the trio rolling around on her living room floor. Then she decided to raise not her voice, but the hunting knife she always carried on her belt, and stabbed it into the kitchen table with a dense thunk.    
  
The sound jolted Faye upright immediately, only for Celica and Alm to hit her in their thrashing and send her tumbling down into the manic tangle of limbs yet again. Her grandmother, Serafine, sighed.    
  
“Kids,” she said dryly. “Get off the floor and come help me get these out of the oven.”   
  
The trio set down towels on the dining table as Nana Sera slid half a dozen pies out of the oven on a long-handled wooden peel. Half of them savory, the other half sweet, all of them filling the air with the scent of the fall harvest.    
  
“No touching,” Sera warned. “These need to cool overnight. Give the fillings time to set and get nice and thick. If you think they’re good now, they’ll be even better by the festival.”   
  
Sera turned, and slid one last pie out of the oven, and set it on the kitchen counter. She gave Faye a conspiratorial wink.   
  
Celica looked puzzled. “I thought we were only bringing six pies to the festival.”   
  
A smile crept along Faye’s lips. She took Celica’s hand and squeezed. “I know. We made this one for you.”   
  
“You made me a  _ pie _ ?” Celica balked. “But-- But these were supposed to be for the whole town, I couldn’t--”   
  
“Well… you’ve been kinda… weird, lately,” Faye said, sheepish. “Kinda down. I wanted to do something to cheer you up.”   
  
“Faye, I told you, I get like that  _ every _ fall…”   
  
Alm scurried up to the counter and took a good, long whiff of fresh pie, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin. Faye had added a bit of flower dye to give the pumpkin a more ruddy hue. The goal was to make it the color of Celica’s hair. It was… well, it was certainly an attempt.    
  
“Aww,” Alm cried, dismayed.    
  
“What? Is the color off?” Faye asked.    
  
“Well, yeah, but that’s not all,” Alm said, sheepish. “The writing didn’t come through.”   
  
“Huh?” Celica blinked.    
  
Alm ushered her forward. There was a series of shallow cuts in the top of the pie crust, but they were barely noticeable now that it had come out of the oven. Alm smiled, scratching the back of his head.    
  
“Faye told me your nameday was coming up,” Alm said. “I know, you normally just celebrate during the harvest festival and you don’t make it a big deal. But I still wanted to do something, so I tried scratching ‘Happy Nameday, Celica’ into the top crust. But it didn’t really show up, and I ran out of room for ‘Birthday’, so really, it just says ‘Happy Celica’...”   
  
Alm abruptly realized Celica was crying. He and Faye started forward, startled.    
  
“Celica!” they called.    
  
“I’m okay,” she sniffled, swiping an arm across her eyes. “It’s just… I had a brother. My twin brother, just a little bit younger than me, and we would always celebrate our namedays together. He was… he was kind of a crybaby, you know? A real sweetheart. He loved to bake…”   
  
Celica’s lip quivered. She darted forward and pulled Alm into a hug, smearing tears into his shirt.    
  
“You remind me of him so much,” she said into his chest.    
  
Alm held her for a moment, gently reaching up and clapping her on the back. Celica stepped back, suddenly self-conscious, stubbornly swiping at her eyes.    
  
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I’m okay, I really am…”   
  
Then Faye’s arms curled around Celica’s waist from behind, and Celica started crying all over again.    
  
“Shh,” Faye cooed, tucking her head over Celica’s shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ve got you.”   
  
Faye and Alm propped Celica up between them. They held her, and swayed with her, until Celica stopped crying, and long after, besides.   
  
That night, as they lay together on Faye’s bearskin carpet, Alm spoke up.    
  
“You never talk about your family,” Alm said softly. “Or where you came from. Mycen just said you came from far away.”   
  
Celica glanced over her shoulder, a silent question in her eyes. She reached for Faye’s arm, curled around her waist, and curled their little fingers together. Faye nodded.    
  
“Alm,” Celica whispered. “Can you keep a secret?”   
  
~*~   
  
Winter in Ram. Gray had started his annual tradition of inviting his friends to sleepovers at his house every night in the winter. He insisted it was a way of saving firewood, that it was easier to stoke one hearth instead of six. Faye was pretty sure the real reason was so Gray wouldn’t go stir crazy, being stuck indoors all winter.    
  
At sunset, they all scurried across town, wrapped in blankets and carrying a change of clothes bundled up in their arms, their guardians calling after them to make sure they were back home by breakfast. Faye was one of the first on Gray’s doorstep, her breath misting in the cold, her teeth chattering despite being wrapped up in one of Nana’s homemade quilts. A moment later, Celica sidled up beside her. Faye offered her hand in greeting.    
  
Celica took Faye’s hand with a squeeze, warming her to her core in an instant. That was the power of love, Faye supposed. Or at least the power of a dragon-blooded fire mage.    
  
Kliff, Alm, and Tobin scampered across town square to join them. Just in time, too, as Gray’s older sister was waiting for them at the door.    
  
“Hi, kids,” she said sweetly, her amber eyes twinkling in the fading light.    
  
“Hi, Skye,” they chorused, and she let them in with a smile.    
  
After a scrumptious mutton stew and a chance to change into their nightclothes, the kids were assembled in Gray’s living room, nesting in various bundles of blankets and quilts.   
  
Nights like these, the kids just talked about anything and everything that crossed their minds, savoring good conversation and good company. But every so often, Skye would come by with a tray full of steaming mugs of hot chocolate, and the conversation would grind to a halt as every one of them, save Gray, would sing “thank you, Skye~” and watch dreamily as she went back up the stairs to her room.    
  
“Man, every time with you guys,” Gray complained, sprawled out on his quilt with his hands behind his head. “Why do you guys always have to be so weird about my sister?”   
  
“She’s strong!” Alm chimed in. “She’s good with a sword, with a spear… I heard she even beat Mycen once.”   
  
“Did not,” Gray protested.    
  
“Did too!”   
  
“She’s a great tracker, too,” Faye offered. “My Nana doesn’t let just anybody come with her into Fleecer’s Forest to set snares. She knows what she’s doing.”   
  
“And she’s really nice,” Celica said. “I remember when I first got here, I didn’t have any winter clothes. She made me my first cloak!”   
  
“Also, she’s  _ really _ pretty,” Kliff blurted out.    
  
“Yeah…” the kids chorused their agreement with dreamy sighs. Gray gagged.    
  
“You guys are so weird. I can’t believe you’re all into  _ older women _ .”   
  
“She’s not  _ that _ much older than us, is she?” Tobin wondered. “She’s, like, thirteen.”   
  
“Yeah, when Celica first got here,” Gray muttered. “Now she’s sixteen. That’s, like… two-thirds of how old we are!”   
  
“What? No it’s not.”   
  
“Whatever, Kliff! I can do math!”   
  
Gray groaned, sinking down in his nest of blankets. He shook his head, scornful.    
  
“Just my luck. Stuck with a bunch of losers making puppy eyes at my sister,” Gray grumbled. He leaned over and gave Faye a shove. “And you two! What’s your excuse? Looking for a role model that’s not as scary as your grandma?”   
  
“My Nana’s not ‘scary’, Gray.”   
  
“Yeah she is! She once asked me if I wanted to play ‘the knife game’.”   
  
“What the heck is the knife game?!”   
  
“I don’t know! You tell me!”   
  
“Why do we have to be looking for role models, Gray?” Celica wondered earnestly. “Why can’t we also have a crush?”   
  
“What?” Gray blinked. “You’re girls.”   
  
“So?”   
  
Gray paused, considering. He sighed, pawing at its face.    
  
“...Because someone needs to be the voice of reason in this group, and if you’re  _ all _ making heart eyes, I  _ guess _ it’s gotta be  _ me _ .”   
  
Gray threw his hands up in exasperation.    
  
“Joke’s on you guys! Skye isn’t cool! She’s a dork, just like us! She’s so lame she’s trying to convince everyone to call her by her middle name because she knows her real name isn’t cool!”   
  
“Well, what is it, then?” Tobin asked.    
  
Gray looked at him, a rueful smile on his face. “...Blue.”   
  
Kliff made a face. “Your sister’s full name is  _ Blue Skye _ ?”   
  
“That explains her wardrobe…” Alm muttered.   
  
“Wait, so your parents named her Blue, and she wound up wearing a lot of blue,” Tobin wondered. “So… if your parents named you Gray, why do you wear  _ green _ ?”   
  
Gray laid back, his hands behind his head.    
  
“What can I say, Tobe? I’m a rebel.”   
  
They laughed together, basking in the glow of the hearth and those warm, if confusing, preteen feelings. They talked long into the night, and when they woke up, tangled together in a mess of blankets and limbs, they woke up with a shout to Zofia’s first snow of the season.    
  
~*~   
  
Spring came, with crisp rain, falling petals and flower crowns.    
  
On the day Slayde and his knights came riding into Fleecer’s Forest, Faye and Celica were dancing together in a field of flowers while Alm sang and played his timbrel. Gray, Kliff, and Tobin were on their way to find them, and ask if they wanted to go for a swim in the creek. As far as Ram village knew, the world was at peace, and these children were free to be just that-- children. It was perfect, a vision of paradise. It was beautiful.    
  
But a thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts.    
  
Just before Mycen bundled her onto his horse and swept her away, Celica pulled Faye into a bruising hug. Years of secrets shared and things unsaid hung between them, beside a tuft of broken fletching hanging from Celica’s neck, and a ribbon in Faye’s hair the color of sunset.    
  
“I will see you again,” Celica breathed, like a prayer. “I promise.”   
  
That moment stretched out in Faye’s memory, so much longer than three years of what she didn’t realize was borrowed time.    
  
She wished that moment could have lasted forever.    
  
When she was young, and in love, and Ram still felt like home.   
  
~*~


End file.
